XD card vs. SD card

[bill hilly]

Could someone fill me in on the relative advantages of XD and SD cards? SD seems to be the most popular. My wife wants me to buy her an Olympus Stylus 1200. Am I going to end up with a format that will disappear (sort of like HD-DVD)?

And what does XD and SD stand for?

[keepright]

I have no idea what xD stands for... like the various Digital Rebels, probably nothing. SD is "Secure Digital".

The good news is that the camera that you're looking at is a good one, and barring tragic accidents will serve well for a long, long time. Given the small size of jpeg files and the cost of 1 and 2gb cards, you'll probably only buy one and it will last you forever.

The bad news is that xD is slow and only used by Olympus and Fuji, with Fuji in the process of abandoning it. Eventually Olympus probably - hopefully - will as well. So go ahead and get and enjoy the stylus, but don't plan on rolling over your stash of xD cards to the next camera three years from now.

That said, I don't use my CF cards that are just a few years old, either. The new ones are bigger and faster. And for the record, I have three cameras that use xD cards - a Stylus 770SW and a pair of Oly SLRs that have a second xD card slot.

[JustShootin']

I have had two Olympus cameras that uses xD cards. (still have one) These cards were bad about going corrupt for no good reason. I lost many a good files because of this. I've had others to tell me that they had the same problem. I believe xD stands for extreme digital. I've never had these problems with SD or CF cards.

Gary

[brian.austin]

xD does, indeed, stand for eXtreme Digital. A full history and specs are available at xD-Picture Card - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I just picked up a Fuji F50SE for my wife. It supports both xD and SD formats. Rumor has it that Fuji is migrating away from xD in favor of the more open format of SD, combined with the recent advances in capacity and speed that hadn't been available in the SD format.

My personal choice is to avoid anything too proprietary.

[bill hilly]

Just an update. We got a really good price on a Canon SD850 (which takes SD) so we bought it. The general feel of the camera is good, and the salesperson recommended the image stabilization over the Olympus. We are happy, but I want to step up to a G9 and let my wife use the 850. I love the way the G9 feels and have seen a price of $460 at my usual online merchant, jr.com. I still have a wide-angle lens from my old 2mp camera which I should be able to use.

My question is, what other camera should I look at before buying the G9 (which is now in stock)?